After the death of a brutish guest at his family's inn, young Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map that leads him and some local adventurers to an island filled with danger and intrigue. Within hours of sighting the island, the crew, led by the villainous Long John Silver, reveals itself as a band of pirates desperate to steal the treasure for themselves. Torn between his desire for adventure and his sense of duty, Jim sets out to defeat the pirates and save his friends, discovering that there are rewards to be earned that are far more valuable than gold. This is one of the world's greatest adventure yarns and Edwards and Bianchi do a stellar job in packaging it for young readers without sacrificing the twists, turns or flavor of the original narrative.

After the death of a brutish guest at his family's inn, young Jim Hawkins discovers a treasure map that leads him and some local adventurers to an island filled with danger and intrigue. Within hours of sighting the island, the crew, led by the villainous Long John Silver, reveals itself as a band of pirates desperate to steal the treasure for themselves. Torn between his desire for adventure and his sense of duty, Jim sets out to defeat the pirates and save his friends, discovering that there are rewards to be earned that are far more valuable than gold. This is one of the world's greatest adventure yarns and Edwards and Bianchi do a stellar job in packaging it for young readers without sacrificing the twists, turns or flavor of the original narrative.

Bianchi's zany characters and cartoon re-enactments of classic sword-play, treasure huts and sailing expeditions are richly rendered in a style that hints of both 19th-Century painter N.C. Wyeth's original art and Saturday morning cartoons.While the large

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH From the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank comes a much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny. At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writing—and who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevenson’s charms, and the two begin a fierce love affair—marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness—that spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevenson’s own unforgettable tales. Praise for Under the Wide and Starry Sky “A richly imagined [novel] of love, laughter, pain and sacrifice . . . Under the Wide and Starry Sky is a dual portrait, with Louis and Fanny sharing the limelight in the best spirit of teamwork—a romantic partnership.”—USA Today “Powerful . . . flawless . . . a perfect example of what a man and a woman will do for love, and what they can accomplish when it’s meant to be.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Horan’s prose is gorgeous enough to keep a reader transfixed, even if the story itself weren’t so compelling. I kept re-reading passages just to savor the exquisite wordplay. . . . Few writers are as masterful as she is at blending carefully researched history with the novelist’s art.”—The Dallas Morning News “A classic artistic bildungsroman and a retort to the genre, a novel that shows how love and marriage can simultaneously offer inspiration and encumbrance.”—The New York Times Book Review